Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25 June 2020 to PQ 62300 on Universal Credit: Fraud, at what stage her Department's investigations into cases of universal credit scams for claimants in the Borough of Halton are; and when those claimants will have their benefits restored.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not store information at a constituency level. As a result, providing the requested information would incur disproportionate costs.
If an individual approaches DWP alleging they have had their identity fraudulently used, we will investigate the matter. We endeavour to ensure that these investigations are brought to a conclusion as quickly as possible.
Where a person has had their details used to make a fraudulent claim for Universal Credit, the Department may consider the reinstatement of legacy benefits where it is clear they played no part in the making of the claim.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, at what stage his Department's investigations into cases of universal credit scams for claimants in Halton constituency are; and when those claimants will have their benefits restored.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department does not hold this data by constituency and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment has he made of the accuracy of medical assessments for personal independence payment claimants who have autism.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment is not a medical assessment requiring the assessor to diagnose a condition and recommend treatment options. It is a needs based assessment which considers how an individual’s condition(s) affects their ability to undertake everyday tasks. The Department continually monitors the performance of contracted suppliers including the requirements for delivering high quality and accurate assessments to all claimants regardless of their condition.
All Health Professionals undertaking PIP assessments must be registered practitioners who have also met requirements around training and competence. They must be an occupational therapist, level 1 nurse, physiotherapist, paramedic or doctor and must also be fully registered and have at least 2 years post full-registration experience, although this can be waived in exceptional circumstances by the Department.
All Health Professionals receive training on a wide range of conditions, including autism, as part of their initial new entrant training. This includes detailed modules covering all aspects of autism and learning disabilities, as well as simulated assessments to enable Health Professionals to understand how these conditions impact on a person’s ability to undertake the activities in the PIP assessment. This is followed by on-going professional training and support which continues for the duration of their employment in the role. All Health Professionals are subject to on-going audit by our Assessment Providers to ensure that they deliver high quality assessments.
We are continually working with the Assessment Providers to further improve the quality of all assessments including increasing clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor. We are undertaking more observations of assessments and our independent audit of assessment reports ensures that the advice provided to the Department’s decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support her Department provides to specifically help people with autism into work.
Answered by Sarah Newton
The Government is strongly committed to increasing employment opportunities for disabled people, including those with autism. Taking a life course approach, we are working across Government and with local authorities, voluntary organisations and employers in the public and private sectors to achieve this. Specific help for people with autism includes:
On Thursday 30 November 2017 we published ‘Improving Lives the Future of Work,
Health and Disability’, which sets out details of our life course approach to improving employment opportunities for disabled people and people with a health condition. Whilst the initiatives are not all aimed exclusively at autistic people, we expect that many will benefit from these initiatives.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 5 March 2018 to Question 130479, on state retirement: pensions, how many complaints the Independent Case Examiners Office has received in total by constituency.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints the Independent Case Examiner is considering from Halton constituency relating to the equalisation of the state pension age; and how many such complaints from Halton constituency that examiner has resolved since 2 October 2017.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Independent Case Examiner’s Office has to date received one complaint relating to the equalisation of state pension age from the Halton constituency, which was declined for investigation in February 2018 as the relevant acceptance criteria had not been met.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are in receipt of universal credit in Halton constituency.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The information available on the number of people and households on Universal Credit by parliamentary constituency, including a split by whether the household has received a payment or a nil award, can be found at:
https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/. Guidance on how to extract the information required can be found at:
https://sw.stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have had payment of universal credit delayed by (a) one week, (b) two weeks, (c) three weeks or (d) four weeks or more in Halton constituency during the last 12 months.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The Department’s data on payment timeliness is not broken down by area or region.
However, data published on 2 October 2017 shows that, nationally, 81% of new full service claims received their first payment in full and on time. Across the whole of Universal Credit, 92% of all households received their full payment on time. The published data can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/universal-credit-payment-timeliness-january-to-june-2017.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 December 2017 to Question 120356, what the reasons are for the Qualifying Young Persons criteria in Universal Credit not being aligned with the Qualifying Young Person criteria in both child benefit and tax credits.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
Universal Credit has been designed to be simpler than the benefits it replaces and provides support for young people aged 16-19 in full-time non-advanced education or approved training, through the child element paid to their parents. This can continue to be paid until 31st August following their 19th birthday.
The criteria in Universal Credit aligns with the academic year to allow most young people still in education or training under age 20 to finish their course and to be supported under their parents’ claim to Universal Credit up to the point at which they would be able to claim in their own right. This will generally be at age18, if they meet the conditions of entitlement.
Asked by: Derek Twigg (Labour - Halton)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Departments policy is on the continued payment of universal credit element for young people still in full time, non-advanced education when they reach the age of 19.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Universal Credit provides support for young people aged 16-19 in full-time non-advanced education or approved training, through the additional payments that their parents receive. These payments can continue until 31st August following the young person’s 19th birthday, which aligns with the academic year and allows most young people, still in education or training under age 20, to finish their course. In effect, these young people will be supported under their parents’ Universal Credit claim until they are able to claim in their own right, generally at age 18, if they meet the conditions of entitlement.